Some cities inspire songs. New York City has always been lyric material. Boston, Detroit, Dallas, New Orleans, San Francisco, Memphis, Chicago; they’ve all inspired a lot of music in many different genres of music.

None, however, seem to capture the imagination of songwriters like Los Angeles. Perhaps it’s because so many aspiring songwriters spend time in L.A. Maybe it’s because of the city itself; a city of contradictions, as city that’s both very self-reflective and in love with its own artifice.

Today, Sunday Morning Playlist does something a little different. Rather than explore another musical genre, we’ll go on a little social anthropology excursion, and see what clues about the City of Angels we can divine from the last fifty years of popular music.

25 great songs about Los Angeles (there are many more) include:

1. X: Los Angeles
X were integral to the L.A. punk scene in the early 80’s. Their 1980 debut, Los Angeles, was produced by Ray Manzerak of the Doors in a sort of generational torch passing. However, aside from a cover of “Soul Kitchen” on the debut, there wasn’t much in their music that resembled the Doors beyond a palpable sense of chaos and dread. Song titles like “Johnny Hit and Run Pauline” and “The Phone’s Off The Hook, But You’re Not” pretty much tell the story of the band’s early outlook, which was nihilistic and somewhat disturbed. Over the years, they’d add more psychobilly and roots rock influence to their music, but on “Los Angeles” they are a full tilt punk band, whose dual vocals from Exene Cervenka and John Doe gave them a sonic texture more resonant than many of their competitors. “Los Angeles” is portrait of the city as frightening place, where people are driven mad and the days turn to nights, they change in an instant…

2. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band: Hollywood Nights
This was Seger’s message to the faithful back home in Michigan. Sure, he may have gone Hollywood, but he was still a simple old midwestern boy at heart. The 1980 album Stranger In Town marked the end of his mega-platinum peak, although he’d ride momentum through the first half of the 1980’s to notch a few more hits before the fade set in. Like spiritual cousin Bruce Springsteen, Seger took a lot of flack for abandoning his root constituency by moving west, although one can hardly blame him. “Hollywood Nights” paints L.A. (or L.A. women) as corrupter of innocents who are razzledazzled by the view of the lights from the hills. It’s cliched as a B-actress’ memoirs, but Seger manages to convey enough working-class sweat to make the tale believable. Still a radio staple to this day.

3. Arlo Guthrie: Coming Into Los Angeles
Arlo Guthrie, son of Woodie, sang “Coming Into Los Angeles” at Woodstock, and enjoyed a few years of modest sales and even a couple of hits in the late 60’s-early 70’s. “Coming Into Los Angeles” portrays Los Angeles as destination point for smuggled drugs; his almost naive “Don’t touch my bags if you please, mister customs man” portrays a world no longer existent in the post 9-11 age; who is going to smuggle in a couple of keys (with which he rhymes ‘Angeles’) in their carry on these days? Still, Los Angeles continues to love its drugs, and they’ve got to be coming from somewhere. So while “Coming Into Los Angeles” may be hippie relic, its sentiments still are serviceable today. A studio version of the song appears on Guthrie’s 1969 album Running Down The Road, but it’s the Woodstock version he’s most well-known for.

4. The Doors: L.A. Woman
For many, the Doors were the quintessential Los Angeles band, formed in Venice, full of theater, cinematic songs, melodrama, booze and drugs, and a muddleheaded peace ethic. Long after the band was derided by the rock intelligentsia as “overrated” at best, and ridiculous at worst, Los Angeles has always had a special place in its heart for them. So it makes sense that in 1971, the band would dedicate an album to the city that embraced them. The title cut, “L.A. Woman” captures all anyone needs to know about the Doors in 2071; except for the bass player they hired especially for the sessions, all the typical Doors moves are present; long keyboard parts, convoluted poetry, a wildeyed earnest romanticism coupled with a vaguely sleazy worldview, and a hummability despite itself. The album continued a comeback of sorts that had begun with Morrison Motel in 1970, but Morrison wouldn’t live to see his love letter to Los Angeles become a perennial; L.A. Woman was completed weeks before his death. Morrison’s message: cops in cars, topless bars, never saw a woman so alone…

5. Mamas and the Papas: 12:30 (Young Girls Are Coming To The Canyon)
The Mamas and Papas, transplanted from the East Coast, had already established their West Coast credentials with “California Dreamin'”, which mentions L.A., their first hit. However, their biggest L.A. specific hit was “12:30 (Young Girls are Coming to the Canyon)” a 1967 Summer of Love hit that took the dreamin’ into actual migration; it’s a lush harmony number that conjures up images of flower girls all looking like Michelle Phillips, traipsing through Topanga with love in their hearts and smiles on their faces in contrast to “dark and dirty” New York City, which gets dissed big time by these DC-area folkies. Californians who complain about the massive youth influx in the 60’s, which helped ruin L.A. and S.F. when they were overrun, can lay a lot of blame at the Mamas and Papas’ doorstep; they romanticized L.A. in “Calfirnia Dreamin'” and “12:30″, and John Phillips wrote “San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)” which misled thousands of naive kids. That said, “12:30″ is still an awfully pretty track, a distorted snapshot of one summer in L.A. history that will never be repeated.

6. Red Hot Chili Peppers: Under The Bridge
Los Angeles was in a bad way in 1992. It had become one of the most violent cities in the nation, with drive-by shootings running amok, racial tensions that erupted in the Rodney King riots, a deterioration of city services. “Under the Bridge”, a memoir of Anthony Keidis’ heroin days was almost touching at the time in the love it expressed for the city, which was as humiliated and degraded as any junkie. It paints a portrait of the city as omnipresent companion, who sees good deeds and by implication, bad ones too. Even the most alienated find some comfort in the existence of the city, and see it on their own terms, as it witnesses the life each carves out without judgment. You’re on your own here, but you’re never alone even when you’re alone. As a veteran junkie journeyman band, little known outside of L.A. until “Under the Bridge” broke them in a huge way, these sentiments, which are not unlike Jim Morrison’s romanticism of “L.A. Woman” in some respects, come easily and honestly. They’d revisit L.A. as theme many times, including on their 1999 album Californication.

7. Randy Newman: I Love L.A.
Can’t leave this off the list. A wiseguy take on L.A. from wiseguy singer/songwriter Newman, who used to make the “artist most likely to get punched in the nose” lists regularly in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Smug, rich, with lots of movie connections, Newman is a particularly Angeleno sort of wiseguy, and Angelenos still generally love him for it, even if his shtick has long ago stopped charming people east of the 110 Freeway. “I Love L.A.” appeared on his 1982 album Trouble in Paradise and remained the city anthem through the 1980’s, especially during 1984, when L.A. hosted the Summer Olympics. “I Love L.A.” cranks up the smugness to cartoon levels and takes the requisite swipe at New York and Chicago as it draws a picture of street after street under gloriously sunny skies, “Looks like another perfect day; I love L.A.”, while noting the beauty of L.A. women as well as the bum on his knees. Smug sure; but despite its overboard irony, it actually does a good job of taking a thumbnail sketch of 1980’s Los Angeles.

8. Sheryl Crow: All I Wanna Do
Sheryl Crow’s woozy 1993 debut smash “All I Wanna Do” did a good job of capturing the hungover, morning-after L.A. of the post-riot 90’s; while on the surface it appears to be a party song, and it is, it is an oddly non-joyous sounding one. Instead, it’s jaded and cooler-than-thou. Yet it also conveys a rally-the-troops sense of let’s shake off this malaise, which was an appreciated enough sentiment in 1993 that the song became something of a rallying cry despite (or because of) its laid-back, still-drinking-at-sunrise sentiment. Crow herself was already a veteran of the L.A. music scene by the time she got to record her debut; this adds a patina of believability to the song. She never did really revisit the oddball viewpoint she expressed on this song; her later work has been much more conventional. But this remains an L.A. favorite to this day.

9. Guns ‘n’ Roses: Paradise City
I could just as easily mention the notorious “One In A Million” here, which is as much about L.A. as the Michael Douglas flick Falling Down, expressing the same xenophobic pre-riot mindset: can’t these lousy foreigners go back to Africa, or Mexico, or China, or wherever they come from? In truth, “One In A Million” as abhorrent is it is, is probably a more accurate portrayal of L.A. than “Paradise City”, which could only have been written by the biggest hair band on Sunset Strip. Essentially the message here is: I love the babes in L.A., can’t wait to get off the road, where the babes aren’t as hot. Guns ‘n’ Roses, of course, never capitalized on what seemed certain to become an enormous level of stardom; after more than a decade of inaction interrupted only by fuck-ups, Chinese Democracy has yet to see the light of day. Posers since day one, G ‘n’ R will always be remembered for their Sunset Strip heroics in the 1980’s, but Angelenos seemed to have moved on.

10. U2: Desire (Hollywood Remix)
U2 debuted “Where the Streets Have No Name” by playing on a downtown L.A. rooftop without a permit and were busted just like the Beatles were when they tried it in London. The band had spent the better part of the year touring America, developing a romantic fondness for and sociologist’s curiosity about the desert (“Joshua Tree”) and points west. For their next album, Rattle and Hum from 1988, “Desire” was chosen as a single, and a special “Hollywood Remix” accompanied it. A relic of L.A.’s violent late 80’s, it opens with the sound of either a car alarm or a siren, followed by news reports of a Hollywood shooting, and sounds of gunfire, and a sampled snippet labeling it “Voodoo Economics”, a buzzword from the ’88 election. While the song in its original form doesn’t mention L.A. specifically, its themes of drugs, guns, and reckless ambition resonated perfectly with the then-current metropolitan milieu. Hollywood now has undergone a remarkable and successful facelift and gentrification; the shoot ‘em up Hollywood of 1988 that this single reflects is largely swept clean.

11. 10,000 Maniacs: City of Angels
Earnest and concerned 80’s college radio favorites 10,000 Maniacs confront the obvious contradictions between the “Paradise” image so often invoked (see Guns ‘n’ Roses, the Eagles, Randy Newman) and the largest homeless population in the United States, largely centered around 6th Street (where Axl growled at the foreigners in “One In A Million, and Randy Newman loves in “I Love L.A.”) The song is a lush romantic waltz with lilting chorus and delicate touches throughout as befits a city of angels, while Natalie Merchant supplies one of her loveliest vocals; the lyrics, a little on the goody-goody side and offering nothing but a tsk tsk about the situation, basically say “Hey I expected paradise, and all I got were these homeless, what’s up with that?” As it wasn’t a single, it never really makes lists such as this one, but it makes a valid point about 1987 Los Angeles that still hasn’t been fixed nearly 20 years later.

12. Frank Sinatra: L.A. Is My Lady
“L.A. Is My Lady” was Sinatra’s attempt to cash in on Olympic fever in 1984, and perhaps come up with a classic along the lines of “New York, New York”. Sinatra was 69 at the time, and sounds decrepit; it and the album that shares its title would be the last serious recordings of his career. The results aren’t pretty; Quincy Jones’ vaguely discofied synthetic-jazz production job doesn’t suit Sinatra at all, and despite a nice showbizzy finale, Sinatra’s vocal just doesn’t muster enough energy to make it a worthwhile anthem. The single tanked, and aside from Duets I & II in 1990, Sinatra was done. Its sentiments are nice though; it’s another personalization of the city itself (see L.A. Woman, Under the Bridge) but from the viewpoint of a lifelong winner. That view: L.A. never lets me down; no other place like it.

13. Missing Persons: Walking In L.A.
While Missing Persons (“Words”, “Destination Unknown”), an early 80’s new wave unit with a decidedly space-age campiness to it, aren’t well remembered by the world at large, “Walking in L.A.” will always be on the L.A. song pantheon. Things have changed a lot since 1983, when this song peaked at #70 nationally. Now L.A. has a new (small, inadequate) subway system, and has become a much denser city, so you do see people walking in places they didn’t walk 23 years ago. But for the most part, the song still holds true; while the verses that end “nobody walks in L.A.” aren’t entirely true anymore, the last verse that says “only a nobody walks in L.A.” is probably still accurate. The song also namedrops a couple of local landmarks, which no longer exist. One thing that always set L.A. apart from other major urban areas was its long blocks of deserted sidewalks and slow, dense traffic. The sidewalks see a little action now, but the traffic is slower and denser.

14. Tom Petty: Free Fallin’
And let us not forget the frequently forgotten San Fernando Valley, the butt of many a joke south of the Hollywood Hills, mile after mile of stripmalls and surburban tract housing; often ridiculed as the most boring place on earth. While most of the Valley is part of the city of Los Angeles (having lost a referendum to leave the city in 2002), it might as well be on Mars; in 1989, when “Free Fallin'” was released, it was still a mostly working-to-middle class suburb that was remarkably self contained, in much the same way Long Island is to New York City. Petty’s take is a little goofy in places “the bad boys are standing in the shadows, and the good girls are home with broken hearts”, but he does a good job of morphing the notions of “free and free falling”. The ultimate message? “I’m kind of a jerk for leaving that nice girl from Reseda”

15. Patti Smith: Redondo Beach
Redondo Beach is one of the more sleazier beach areas in the South Bay area, or at least it was in 1975, when New York-based Smith included this odd little reggae on her debut album, Horses. A tale of either murder or suicide, with a protagonist who is or isn’t a lesbian, “Redondo Beach” doesn’t capture much about the place itself except in the most nebulous sense; it has always been a place with its fair share of loser and drifter types, and occasionally has had to sensational murder. It gets the nod simply because so few New Yorkers bother to acknowledge L.A. beyond stereotypes, let alone bother to learn the names of its outlying communities. Plus a reggae by a New Yorker about Redondo ought to appeal to the typically eclectic Los Angeleno’s palette.

16. Frank Zappa: Valley Girl
Back to the Valley again, this time for the song that put the Valley on the map, so to speak, Frank Zappa’s 1981 hit “Valley Girl”. While Zappa and his band provide some meaty guitar and laconic vocals, the star of the show is really Zappa’s 13-year old daughter, Valley native Moon Unit, who essentially goes through a rundown of idiomatic Valley English as a primer of sorts for the nation at large. “Gag me with a spoon” has been part of the lexicon ever since. Plus we get “totally bitchin'”, “Barf me out”, “like, oh my god” and much much more. The song is mainly Moon’s monologue, with Frank supplying angular guitar and general noise. It was requested constantly in L.A. when it was new; whether or not you need to hear it now depends on whether you’re from the Valley and/or you are a Zappa fan.

17. The Eagles: The Last Resort
“Hotel California” from the same album would have been a more obvious choice, but I’ve always been more partial to the stately weeper “The Last Resort” which closes the Hotel California album, from 1976. In many respects, Hotel California is a concept album about L.A., or at least a thematically unified album with L.A. as its focus; “New Kid In Town” and “Life In The Fast Lane” are L.A.-centric sentiments, even if not explicitly about the city. “The Last Resort” mourns the loss of the mythical El Dorado-esque Los Angeles, offering up the poignant adage “Call some place paradise, you can kiss it goodbye”. The essential message is “too many people are coming here, and it’s starting to suck”. Thirty years later, you still hear the same refrain, although most of the newcomers aren’t suckered into believing they’re coming to paradise anymore.

18. The Kinks: Celluloid Heroes
From the Kinks’ early 70’s show-biz phase, when their albums were mini-operas, “Celluloid Heroes” is an admirably self contained ode to Hollyood legends long passed, as seen as stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The song itself is a soft ballad, full of wistfulness and nostalgia, with a particularly mellow lead guitar solo; the lyrics name drop everyone from Rudoph Valentino to Bela Lugosi to Betty Grable. It’s a lovely song, with one of Ray Davies’ most tender vocals; and it is a fittingly kitschy tribute to a kitschy landmark. Sentimental as a black and white movie, but that’s the point. It’s also one of the Kinks’ best cuts from their largely disparaged 70’s output. The studio version contains an extra verse left out on the version that appears on the 1980 live album One For The Road, which more people are familiar with.

19. Tupac Shakur: To Live and Die in L.A.
This opens with what sounds like a snippet of a radio program that pokes a dangerous stick in the direction of the East and West rivalry, which indirectly cost TuPac his life. It’d be easy to accuse TuPac of fatalism if he hadn’t ultimately met his fatal end; as such “To Live and Die In L.A.” is like a 4-minute synopsis for Boyz N The Hood. Yet it isn’t fatalistic, despite its acknowledgement of the dangers of L.A. ghetto existence; it offers an olive branch to the Mexicans, and like “Under The Bridge” or “L.A. Woman” it’s a love letter to the city more than anything else, ironic given the circumstances of TuPac’s short existence. The song itself is from The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory rush released as a cash-in a mere 8 weeks after TuPac’s shooting death in Las Vegas. Credited to Makaveli, instead of TuPac, it gave rise to the legend that TuPac wasn’t dead, just hiding out.

20. Grateful Dead: West L.A. Fadeaway
“West L.A. Fadeaway” appeared on the Dead’s 1987 commercial breakthrough In The Dark, the biggest album of their long career. The song is a sinister one, suggesting drug intrigue, organized crime, and violence; it’s about hiding out, which is another of L.A.’s traditional pastimes, used by crooks on the lam and losers on the down-low ever since the city began attracting citizens willing to leave it all behind at the turn of the 20th century. Like most of the In The Dark album, which was written over the space of nearly 7 years, the song’s lyrical detail is a little richer than usual for a Dead tune, which makes it one of the better latter-day numbers. It also earns extra points for working in the slang term “copacetic”, a word I’ve never encountered east of the Sierra Nevadas.

21. Lightning Hopkins: Los Angeles Blues
This opens with a spoken dedication to Los Angeles, before launching into a very slow, piano-based blues. The song appeared on the unfortunately named 1969 album California Mudslide (And Earthquake) In it, Hopkins thinks of relocating, just like the Eagles feared: “People all told me if you go to Los Angeles, Lightnin’, you makin’ a sad mistake, but I holler ‘hello Los Angeles’, I believe I’ll be on my way”. Like with so many other songs, Hopkins here identifies Los Angeles as “a friend”; two other songs on the album also specifically mention L.A. Hopkins was 57 when he recorded this, and although it is past his peak, he’s in excellent form, with a stong unwavering voice and he gets in a great piano solo. Blues was largely a Chicago, Southern, and East Coast phenomenon; Los Angeles never had an indiginous blues scene to compete with the others. Still, as long as the city has been here, there has always been blues to sing. Hopkins, like so many others, here sings of Los Angeles as a place to escape his blues.

22. Distillers: City of Angels
The Distillers may have had an Australian member and one from Detroit when they formed in 1998, but they’ve been based largely in L.A. and recorded for Epitaph records. “City of Angels” is from their third album, Sing Sing Death House, from 2003. One of the few punk bands of the early 00’s to actually sound convincingly “punk”, their take on L.A. is suitably raucous and damaged in an X sort of way, perhaps crossed with Courtney Love. “City of Angels” has a great anthemic quality to it, and the band plays in a revved-up fashion without sacrificing an inherent tunefulness to their narrow range of chords. Like many before them, they celebrate the very irony of the city itself; it’s both celebratory and condemning at the same time, which is like many Los Angles songs. The Distillers haven’t followed up this album, and their lineup has had some key changes made. But even if they never follow it up, “City of Angels” makes a worthy addition to the L.A. canon.

23. Wang Chung: To Live and Die In L.A.
Wang Chung were the moderately popular U.K. synth-pop band that gave the world two moderately good synth-pop hits in the mid 1980’s, “Dance Hall Days” and “Everybody Have Fun Tonight”. Their third biggest hit was “To Live and Die In L.A.”, which was written on commission for William Friedkin’s 1985 film of the same title, a seedy cop story set in the City of Angels. For a couple of Brits, they do a good job of capturing the city milieu; the synthetic rhythm suggests a freeway in motion, the lyrics paint a suitably alienated and jaundiced view of life, colored by the disillusion that often sets in among those who come here for the thrills. Wang Chung were a better band than they’re often given credit for; “To Live and Die In L.A.” is arguably their deepest and best single.

24. Elliott Smith: Angeles
“Angeles” is from Smith’s 1997 album Either/Or, which stands as the best of his short career; the song was also featured in the movie Good Will Hunting. A nice acoustic-based number, it displays all the offhanded charm that made Smith seem to be destined for greatness in the late 90’s, before his untimely death. Introspective and eerie, with a little electronic ambiance added for color, it comes across as almost a prayer and promise to the city itself; one could even be convinced “Angeles” refers to a woman and not the city, were Smith not a native Angleno himself. It’s confused, but touching which pretty much sums up Smith himself. There is no shortage of sad, confused persons like Smith in the city.

25. Shawn Mullins: Lullaby
Atlanta-borm Mullins had been trying to break into music ever since he released a cassette in 1989 while a member of the Army Airborne Infantry Division; it took until 1997, when he finally had a hit with “Lullaby” before he finally made it. “Lullaby”, from the album Soul’s Core, is a slow singer/songwriter number dressed up with late 90’s electronica touches; it namedrops Fairfax Avenue, the Hollywood Hills, and a few dead celebrities while offering reassurance to yet another lonely denizen of the city of heartbreak. The moral? Money isn’t everything, and there are devils in this angel town. “Lullaby” may remain Mullins’ definitive statement; he has yet to crack the Hot 100 again.

I don’t know why, but that “album” is about my favorite release of the 80’s. Perhaps because the musicianship on that album is impeccable.

In case you didn’t know. The whole band graduated from the Zappa school of music, and had the chops to prove it.

Nicely done.

http://freewayjam.blogspot.com uao

Sister Ray– I guess I was a little hard on GNR; I wasn’t taking the ‘neutral’ position I usually take in my genre articles. I admit, Appetite is a good album with a lot of supporters. But I remember being suspicious of them when they broke; their subsequent history suggests to me that there was less there than met the eye. But okay, “posers” was a little harsh…;-)

Joey– That’s a good note about the Missing Persons/Zappa connection, thanks. I never actually owned a copy of Spring Sessions M, but Best of Missing Persons (which is most of SSM plus a couple of stray tracks) was one of the first CD’s I bought when I moved to LA in ’89.

http://www.rodneywelch.blogspot.com/ Rodney Welch

Concrete Blonde: Still in Hollywood
Warren Zevon: Desperadoes Under the Eaves

Jimmy

GNR posers since day one? Never capitalized on the stardom? Were you around in the late 80s early 90s? I was and I remember them being the biggest band in the world at one point. Even when “grunge” came in and took out metal, GNR was still going strong, very strong. And to add, if you knew anything, you would know Paradise City isn’t even about LA. Its about getting away from the craziness of life to a “Paradise City”, not to LA. Welcome the Jungle is about LA. Know what your talking about if your gonna write something like that.

Scott Butki

I was gonna mention Still in Hollywood but I see
someone beat me to it.

Watching Concrete Blonde sing that song about L.A.
at a club in L.A. (they opened for the Replacements) is one of my pleasant memories of growing up not far from L.A.

I used to walk in L.A. and people would be like “hey, nobody walks in L.A. and I’d tell them where they can stick their missing person.

I was never a big GNR fan but it’s true that they were huge and the fact people are still drooling with excitement over whatever Axl does next even though his 15 minutes were over at least 10 years ago shows just how big they were.

Scott Butki

Just checked Wikipedia to see what they had on Paradise City and Axl Rose. I never knew his name was an anagram for orxal sex. Silly man.

Anyway the article might be an interesting read since it mentions at least two intepretations of the song but it does say that Axl says Paradise City does not exist which puts the idea that it’s about L.A. into serious doubt.

http://freewayjam.blogspot.com uao

I’m hoping this doesn’t turn into a Guns ‘n’ Roses thread; I simply don’t want to be responsible for bringing another one into the world…

I took a little license perhaps in my interpretation of Paradise City. What Axl thinks it’s about is immaterial; a lot of songwriters are poor sources to ask what their songs are ‘about’.

Interestingly, Wiki also includes Paradise City on a similar list, although I don’t agree that all of their choices are really “about” L.A.

I should have gone with my first instince and chosen “One In A Million” which names an actual L.A. street corner (6th and Loa Angeles, by the Greyhound station)

I’m not saying Paradise City ins’t inspired by L.A.; they lived in L.A. at the time, wrote at least one other song about L.A., and “paradise” as a codeword for L.A. was used by Randy Newman “Trouble In Paradise”, the Eagles “The Last Resort”, 10000 Maniacs “City of Angels”, etc.

So, it is not outside the realm of reasonable that one can infer that Paradise City may refer to L.A. too, even in the service of creating a fictitious city.

But okay, let’s go with “One In A Million” instead!

Jimmy– You must have missed my reply to Sister ray. Yes, I was “around”. Yes, they were very “big”. I still think GNR were more hype than band, like many Sunset Strip bands of the 80’s. Appetite was good; I’ve conceded that already. Great? Matter of taste. And it was downhill from there.

But this ain’t about GNR, it’s about L.A.

James Blackman In LA

having a business in Redondo Beach
I have the words “Redondo Beach”(California)
on my Google media alert and you popped up today! So I clicked on your sight and I saw the write up on what you wrote on Patty Smith, and Redondo Beach being “sleazy”…thank you for adding “or least it was in 1975″
and as native living at 310 South Prospect in 1975 when I was 19 I would say that was fairly accurate!
But I will say today with coffee at about 6.00 bucks a cup and a 1950’s two bedroom monopoly shaped house will run you about 1.5 million, not to mention the valet parking for the dry cleaners a lot has changed-since then. Its now Beverly Hills with an ocean. Thank for the great chuckle and the fond memories of a less important and more fun time in our lives here south bay and in Redondo Beach. The line up of artist was perfectly selected and the writing on each of them was well executed, great work. The show sounds wonderful. Good work.

Sorry, no slight intended towards present day Redondo Beach! It’s a fine community now, great for business, and a place I can’t afford anymore

I got a chuckle from your post too. Thanks!

http://freewayjam.blogspot.com uao

I meant James Blackman. Sorry, I’m having a “cant type for beans” day today…

http://www.tresbleu/blogspot.com Sister Ray

I like the Wang Chung song. too. Let’s turn it into a Wang Chung thread :->

Scott Butki

Everybody Wang Chung tonite! What the hell does that actually mean?

Brian

Jude’s “Out Of L.A.” – Perfect for anyone who’s ever lived there and wanted to get out.

RooDog

U2’s “Desire” is about a housing project in New Orleans – thus, disqualified from your list. Please remove. Thanks – the management.

http://freewayjam.blogspot.com uao

RooDog:

“Desire” (Hollywood Remix) is full of sound effects of Hollywood, repeating the phrase “In Hollywood tonight” about 20 times throughout the song. Thus, U2 themselves are identifying Desire with Hollywood.

No, your poll is mistaken. A song specifically about New Orleans should not land in the top 25 songs about Los Angeles, particularly the top 10?!?!?!. Admit your mistake and replace it with something more approrpriate.

http://freewayjam.blogspot.com uao

RooDog, what is it about “Hollywood” do you not understand?

http://freewayjam.blogspot.com uao

…and why is a snippet of circa-1988 L.A. anchorwoman Bree Walker reporting on a shooting in Hollywood sampled a couple of dozen times? And why film the video in Hollywood? And call it the Hollywood Remix?

Answer one of these, and I’ll dedicate my next songs-about-a-city to New Orleans…

Scott Butki

What about Rage Against the Machine: Battle of Lost Angeles

RooDog

If you really wanted to capture the “themes of drugs, guns, and reckless ambition,” what about Straight Outta Compton? Other tunes that deserve to be there over Desire include the Peppers “Californication” & “Drinkin’ In LA” by Bran Van 3000. Of course, you could claim that L.A. also applies to Louisiana, and that’s why Desire is in there.

http://freewayjam.blogspot.com uao

RooDod, “Hollywood” is in the TITLE, and is repeated at least 20 times (Maybe I’m going to have to go home and count them; I’m at work now)

Perhaps the problem is maybe you’ve never heard the Hollywood Remix; if you had, we’d have no argument here.

As for the ‘regular’ “Desire”, I’m unconvinced that it’s about New Oleans; “I wanna go where the bright lights and the big city meet” –New Orleans has never been considered a “big” city, nor is it known for “bright lights”; if you claimed Las Vegas or NY, I’d buy it.

But I’m npot talking about the regular “Desire”, I’m talking about the Hollywood Remix. So even if it were about N.O. originally, it’s recontextualized by the Hollywood samples.

I already have a Peppers song that’s specific to L.A., although I mention Californication (Did you read the article, or just pounce on “Desire” without reading it?)

“Straight Outta Compton is a good one, although Compton is a separate city from L.A.; I left out Weezer’s “Beverly Hills” and Hole’s “Malibu” on those grounds. But yes, an expanded list could include that one, good pick.

If you haven’t heard the Hollywood Remix of “Desire” give it a listen; U2 is specifically making a point about Hollywood by the samples they repeatedly use, naming Hollywood by name.

Can’t make it plainer than that. But I’m pleased you’re a fan of the song; it’s one of their best. I mean nothing personal, but I’m going to stand my ground on this one all day.

Scott: Rage Against the Machine’s tune is a good pick; I had to cut off somewhere. But I shoulda at least noted it in the ‘honorable mentions’

Thanks for the pick.

Scott Butki

I just spent five minutes scrolling through Amazon listings trying to find something.
There was a cool song about two years ago with L.A. in the chorus that was somewhere between trip hop, rap and electronica.
But I can’t recall the artists’ name. Very catchy though.

http://www.led-zeppelin.com grubar30

“Know what your talking about if your gonna write something like that.”

here here!

http://freewayjam.blogspot.com uao

grubar30:

Know what you’re talking about before you use an expression.

The expression you meant was: “hear, hear!” not “here, here” (where?)

Scott: Not sure what you heard, but there’s a lot of ‘em. I daresay there’s more about L.A. than N.Y., which I wouldn’t have predicted until I actually started thinking of ‘em.

Scott Butki

Oh I remember a bit more – the chorus goes “L.A., L.A., L.A.”

Ok, that doesn’t help much either.

http://gohah.blogspot.com Gordon Hauptfleisch

Close but maybe no cigar–
THE BEATLES–“BLUE JAY WAY” (a street in Hollywood hills):
There’s a fog upon L.A.
And my friends have lost their way
They’ll be over soon they said
Now they’ve lost themselves instead.
Please don’t be long please don’t you
be very long

THE THRILLS–“HOLLYWOOD KIDS”:
Well they’re sure keen on dancin’
Those Hollywood kids, those Hollywood kids got it made.
When they act, big doors open.
Those Hollywood kids, those Hollywood kids got it made.
So let’s party, Dustin Hoffman.
Those Hollywood kids, those Hollywood kids got it made.

Oh how the sun sets on my Boulevard
But leaves quite a shadow to fill

Scott Butki

A few other nominees:
Born in East L.A.
99 miles from L.A. – art garfunkel
Los Angeles is Burning – Bad Religion
Los Angeles – Frank Black/Pixies

http://freewayjam.blogspot.com uao

Gordon: Blue Jay Way would have been an inspired choice, I forgot all about it. Legend has it, Harrison wrote it after getting lost in the Hollywood Hills looking for Derek Taylor’s pad. I forgot all about it.

Haven’t heard the Thrills, but I’ll check that one out (I’m thinking of building a collection of these)

Thanks again, Scott; I don’t know the Garfunkel one. “Born in East LA” would have been a nice pick too. Forgot about Frank Black; haven’t heard the Bad Religion one, although I seem to have an mp3 of it on my HD; I never have enough time to listen to everything, how I need a 120GB iPod…

Scott Butki

I’m downloading some of those on your list now.

http://www.rodneywelch.blogspot.com/ Rodney Welch

Another suggestion: “Show Biz Kids”

By the way, I’m a huge X fan and I just never really think of them in terms of dread or nihilism, mainly because those words connote a certain morbid ponderousness. X has a wild and furious brand of darkness that embraces life in all of its risk. There’s nothing dreary about them. That Jim Morrison trip wasn’t for them.

http://freewayjam.blogspot.com uao

If I were to consider X over the scope of their career, I’d certainly agree with you Rodney; X were humanists and positive underneath the morbidity.

But that debut album was dark and eerie when it appeared. And even now, I find “Los Angeles” both living-nightmarish and weirdly affirming at the same time. The wail it opens on still raises the hair on the back of my neck.

You put it best here: “X has a wild and furious brand of darkness that embraces life in all of its risk.” That’s it right there.

They sure did leave the Doors behind, and good for them. I have great respect for X; I’d never call them ‘dreary’ either. I really couldn’t find an L.A. song I bonded with as an Angeleno as much as I did “Los Angeles” when I came to L.A.; it did capture the desperate Hollywood Blvd. scene pretty nicely.

godoggo

“L.A. Girl” by the Adolescents.

I understand the kids consider the “Blue Album” a venerable classic nowadays.

You know, I just realized that that song is really about one of those old Hollywood punks who would sneer at the little suburban hardcore kids.

godoggo

Oh, man, I just thought of a good one!

“Hollywood Bed” by the Blasters!

http://www.rodneywelch.blogspot.com/ Rodney Welch

uao — I agree about the song totally. In fact, I’m actually rather new to the whole X shebang; being on the East Coast — where only diehard punk fans have heard of them — I’ve never been to L.A. or seen X live, and have only bought their first four discs (and the anthology double-disc) in the last few months, so those songs all still sound perfectly fresh to me.

I’m not trying to make X sound nice and safe or anything, but another thing about the song “Los Angeles” that’s interesting to me is that it points out how multicultural the place is, and how volatile it is because of that, which is exactly why the woman in the song has to get out:

She had to leave Los Angeles
All her toys wore out in black
And her boys had too
She started to hate
Every Nigger and Jew
Every Mexican that gave her a lotta shit
Every homosexual and the idle rich
She had to get out

If I’m not mistaken, this actually refers to someone Exene Cervenka knew — but to me it always sounds like some faded beauty who has become a hanger-on, someone who was once loved by the city and has now been rejected, and who hatefully rejects the city in return. A dynamite song, as is the whole album, which may well be their best.

godoggo

Song for song I think the best album is Wild Gift, but unfortunately it’s marred by poor production and (as a result), somewhat wimpy playing. I recently read an interview with Billy Zoom in which he said that studios had started quoted them absurd prices because of the stigma of being a punk band, and the first guy to give a reasonable quote turned out just to have a job cleaning up at the studio, and didn’t know what the hell he was doing. Kind of a shame, although at least we have the kickass “Anthology” versions of most of the songs.

http://www.rodneywelch.blogspot.com/ Rodney Welch

I’ve read where Billy Zoom has made similar comments on the quality of the recordings, but it’s kind of lost on me since I can’t tell good studio production from poor studio production. To me, both those records sound great — and a lot of Anthology is just taken straight off the studio records, or it uses alternate mixes or somewhat muddy (but often extraordinary) live versions.

http://freewayjam.blogspot.com uao

I should have noted the multicultural aspect more in the article; unfortunately, the only songs I mentioned that touch on it are “Los Angeles” and “One In A Million”, neither of which portray the multicultures in a very positive light. Not sure how many songs have been written that celebrate the eclectic, multi-ethnic L.A.

Might be worth adding the Gipsy Kings’ Spanish version of “Hotel California” from The Big Lebowski (great L.A. flick) to lend a little more color to the list.

godoggo: As what always happens when I make these lists, I keep thinking “damn! Shoulda included that one too” I do feel remiss in neglecting hometown heroes the Adolescents and the Blasters; I’ll make amends one day when I compile a “Best bands from L.A.” list.

http://www.rodneywelch.blogspot.com/ Rodney Welch

Other suggestions: Joni Mitchell, “California.” (I assume she means L.A. due to the line: “I’m gonna see the folks I dig/I’ll even kiss a sunset pig” — which I suspect means the cops on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.)

Well, I hear that Laurel Canyon
is full of famous stars,
But I hate them worse than lepers
and I’ll kill them
in their cars.

http://blog.myspace.com/blog/rss.cfm?friendID=19453654 J. P. Spencer

The best song is missing from the list

I nominate “The World Began In Eden And Ended In Los Angeles” by Phil Ochs. He wrote the song considering that exploration by Europeans going westward eventually had to end, and it ended in Los Angeles.

“So this is where the renaissance has left you?
And we shall be the only ones who know
So take a drive and breathe the air of ashes
That is, if you need a place to go”